When you shine in a way you ordinarily don't, you tend to remember it. I still recall how satisfying it was to lead my high school chemistry class once with the top test score of 95%. During my last few years of writing and broadcasting prep sports radio reports, I did my best to look for upsets. I thought it would be morale-boosting for players and fans to hear about their team's better-than-usual accomplishments. It must be so satisfying for an unranked football team to defeat a top 10 team, a quarterback who doesn't play often to throw a season-high number of touchdown passes, or an overlooked player to rack up considerable rushing yardage.
It makes for an attention-getting broadcast, as well, so that was all the more reason for me to highlight unusual achievers. There's just something satisfying about rooting for and spotlighting the underdog.
On a related note, while it has no bearing on my life, I guess I'm rooting for the Kansas City Chiefs today.
